Irrigation Water Usage by Gallon

[redwitch]

How many gallons of water does your landscaping take on a monthly basis? Please give the type of home, whether large, medium or small (or corner) lot and, if possible the usage for the past 3 months.

I'm trying to create a baseline of averages so that I can tell when there is something wrong in the homes I check, particularly in a designer in Hemingway that I believe has some issues at the present time. So, figured this would be handy info for all of us.

Thanks!

[English Ivy]

Here's a link to some averages The Villages has posted on the Districtgov.org web site. It also gives a method to calculate useage on non-standard home sites.

We have a designer on a standard sized interior lot. However due to all the rain we've gotten in the past year there have been many weeks when we did not run our system. I just calculated our average useage for the past 12 months and it was about 2800 gal per billing cycle (which is a lot less than the 7200 gal average we should use according to this link). Our useage includes last spring when we had new landscaping and irrigated more often.

http://www.thevillageswaterwisdom.com/content/HowMuch1109.pdf

Hope this info is useful for you.

[redwitch]

Thank you so much! Guess I need to call Home Warranty -- the house I'm concerned about is using approximately 13,000 gallons per month just for the irrigation. grrrrrr

[Carla B]

Hi Redwitch,

We also have a designer (in Hemingway) on a standard-sized lot. Our irrigation water usage became a concern last summer, when it went to over 11,000. At that point we started operating the system manually and reading the meter before and after watering. Each watering normally uses between 1200 and 1800 gallons, though once or twice we've recorded 2500 gallons. Don't know why it should vary that much.

At any rate, the usage goes way down depending on the temperature and rainfall. Here is actual billing:

1/22 0 gallons (system shut off)
12/22 3460
11/22 7120
10/23 9250
9/23 2520 (probably due to lots of rain).

If you are in the investigation mode and would like to discuss further, please feel free to p.m.

[BarbinNH]

Redwitch,

It really depends on the size of the lot and how long the water is running for each zone. We have a designer on a large cul-de-sac lot in Bonita and we actually used 13,000 gallons the first month or two. We were only watering once a week, but the time for each zone was fairly long. It was July-August and I was concerned about the new lawn, which did not look good. Once it cooled off a little and the lawn looked better, I started watering for a shorter period of time each week and our bill reflected it.

HTH

Barb

[Bogie Shooter]

Hi Redwitch,

We also have a designer (in Hemingway) on a standard-sized lot. Our irrigation water usage became a concern last summer, when it went to over 11,000. At that point we started operating the system manually and reading the meter before and after watering. Each watering normally uses between 1200 and 1800 gallons, though once or twice we've recorded 2500 gallons. Don't know why it should vary that much.

At any rate, the usage goes way down depending on the temperature and rainfall. Here is actual billing:

1/22 0 gallons (system shut off)
12/22 3460
11/22 7120
10/23 9250
9/23 2520 (probably due to lots of rain).

If you are in the investigation mode and would like to discuss further, please feel free to p.m.


Temperature has nothing to do with the amount of water used. Rainfall can have an impact, because there is a sensor on your system that will prevent the system from running, if it has rained during the previous 24 hours.
Beyond that the only other things that effect water consumption are; number of zones, time setting on each zone, the size of the nozzle on the sprinkler head, or a leak in the system.

[Bogie Shooter]

Thank you so much! Guess I need to call Home Warranty -- the house I'm concerned about is using approximately 13,000 gallons per month just for the irrigation. grrrrrr

Take a look at the timer and all the settings. Sounds like it is recycling on more than one program.

[redwitch]

Actually, we had set the timer to run longer at the suggestion of the landscaper because the sod had been put down late and was much browner than any other lawn in the neighborhood. It is a fairly large lot considering it is not a corner lot and has 6 zones. Guess first thing to do is turn down the time and see if that makes a difference -- it just seemed high to me even with an additional 5-10 minutes of time per zone. Thanks everyone!

[l2ridehd]

I must have a HUGE leak someplace. I have two homes and the variance in irrigation water by month by home is a lot. I have tried to see if that is happening because of a leak or two much time or what, but have found nothing. Both homes are designer homes on oversize lots, but not huge lots.
Home B is the larger lot of the two so would expect it to be slightly higher.

Home A----------Home B
Jan 5950------------12680
Feb 4490------------12910
Mar 5970-------------7390
Apr 6190------------9880
May 8990------------9780
Jun 5920-----------14980
Jul 3630------------9440
Aug 8100-----------22730
Sep 1800-----------17770
Oct 8680------------7070
Nov 7010-----------9630
Dec 5730----------10650

[Bogie Shooter]

I must have a HUGE leak someplace. I have two homes and the variance in irrigation water by month by home is a lot. I have tried to see if that is happening because of a leak or two much time or what, but have found nothing. Both homes are designer homes on oversize lots, but not huge lots.
Home B is the larger lot of the two so would expect it to be slightly higher.

Home A----------Home B
Jan 5950------------12680
Feb 4490------------12910
Mar 5970-------------7390
Apr 6190------------9880
May 8990------------9780
Jun 5920-----------14980
Jul 3630------------9440
Aug 8100-----------22730
Sep 1800-----------17770
Oct 8680------------7070
Nov 7010-----------9630
Dec 5730----------10650
You definitely have a problem. I would call one of the guys to check you timer and look for leaks.